My two-year old has very little patience and wants to be entertained on every page. He wants to see lots of illustrations that he can recognise or that interest him. Only then can I actually get through the reading part of story time.

Scotton has not varied the illustrations enough for a younger audience. My son picked out the fish, a bath and a swimming pool. Unfortunately, he got bored very quickly.

This is too wordy a picture book for two-year-olds. It takes too long to let us know the central problem, and there are too many: Splat the Cat doesn't like water, he has to take a bath, he has to swim, he has a scary teacher, a mean class-mate with whom his mum is making him play and he has to learn to share, Splat has no swimming trunks. So much to take in!

Although I don't recommend Splish, Splash, Splat for two to three year-olds, I quite enjoyed it. It offers a nice lesson in friendship and overcoming fears for older children. I'll be hanging on to it for a few years...